While following the conversation about Status Board yesterday, I saw a tweet that made my jaw drop.
@viticci It just doesn’t seem right morally, even if they say it’s built for “professionals”.
— Jack Amick (@jackamick) April 10, 2013
I don’t mean to single this guy out, or anything. But do I really need to explain why this is downright ludicrous?
There is only one circumstance under which a price can be “immoral.” That is if the good being sold is both 1) Absolutely necessary for survival and 2) only available from one source.
As cool as Panic’s new Status Board app is, you can’t argue that you’d die without it. And though there’s no other app quite like it at the moment, many companies could theoretically build something similar and charge far less.
Thus, morality has no place in this discussion. Panic can charge whatever people are willing to pay.
You can call the price expensive, though most companies with the budget for a spare iPad and an HDTV to broadcast team stats wouldn’t agree. You can certainly say that you’re not willing to pay it. But immoral?
The sad part is that this guy is no fringe thinker. He’s close to the norm. Which is why it’s so important for companies like Panic who have a long-standing reputation for quality to stand behind their product and put an end to the senseless race to 99-cents.
The party is long over, folks. Independent developers are watching: You can make an app, charge $10 for it, have additional In-App Purchases that cost even more money, and be quite successful. People will call you immoral. Countless others will complain.
But at the end of the day, you’ve got a decent chance of ending up here:
Or you can keep chasing that 99-cents and see where that gets you.
